Senate panel: 2022 budget to be passed Tuesday

The senate committee on appropriations says the upper legislative chamber will pass the 2022 appropriation bill on Tuesday.

Barau Jibrin, chairman of the appropriation committee, spoke with journalists on Monday after a meeting with Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Barau said the bill has not been laid because his committee has been waiting for the electoral commission to provide details of what it needs for the forthcoming general election.

The chairman said the bill will be laid and considered on Tuesday.

“The presentation and consideration will be tomorrow,” he said.

“We have been waiting for them [INEC] and they have given the detailed information of what they need.

“We are proceeding to put together our report for onward submission to the plenary tomorrow [Tuesday]. We are presenting it tomorrow and it is going to be considered tomorrow as well by the grace of God.”

During the meeting with members of the appropriation committee, Yakubu said the commission will need over N300 billion for the 2023 general election and some bye-elections in 2022.

In October, President Muhammadu Buhari presented an expenditure of the federal government in the 2022 fiscal year as N16.45 trillion.

But the senate committee on finance pegged the federal government’s total expenditure at N16.39 trillion, reducing what the president sent by N60 billion.

Also, Buhari had pegged the fiscal deficit at N692.0 billion, but the senate put it at N635.4 billion.